Monday, December 12, 2016

Thank You For Nothing

I am so freaking sick and tired of hearing gutless Democrats and milk toast media people blaming Hillary for her own defeat.

One of the statements I often hear Republicans make, particularly Kellyanne Conway, political spinner par excellence, a statement that is then echoed by pundits and pols, is that Hillary didn't have a message. She just didn't reach those white disaffected unemployed workers in Middle America. She should have stuck more with "it's the economy, stupid".

Really? Were all of you so busy talking about her emails that you didn't have time to listen to her speeches or read her policy papers? Was there not enough pizazz in her talks about what she intended to do as president to deserve as much coverage as Don the Con, Mr Shoot-From-The-Hip Showman?

Because I did pay attention and I knew exactly what her message was. She wanted to make college more affordable for young people. She wanted to strengthen and expand Medicare and Medicaid. She wanted to raise the minimum wage. She wanted tighten restrictions on the way the rich protect their money. She wanted to make equal pay for equal work the standard for women. She wanted to make sure Roe v Wade remained in effect. She wanted to keep but improve Obamacare. She wanted to make gay rights even more inclusive. She wanted to pass comprehensive immigration reform while also embracing the DACA Dreamers and their families. She wanted to empower alternative energy sources in order to minimize climate change and create the job of the future. All those positions sound pretty positive to me....for all Americans, including the white working class.

I could go on but what difference, at this point, does it make?

I've heard some analysts say those white Americans who feel victimized by the global economy didn't think she related to them enough. She stood with gays and Black Lives Matter too much. She embraced identity politics too much.

But, if that's the case, what would you have had her do? We are all Americans - black, white, brown, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim, male, female, transgender. Would you have have admired her more if she'd faced the reality of division in America by tossing everyone but white Christians overboard as Donald Trump did? Is that the honorable way to find political success? Did you really want a president who picked a "chosen people" and let everyone else go by the wayside?

A friend of mine told me, "face it, Vic, she wasn't a good candidate. People just didn't like her?"

But evidently 2.7 million more Americans liked Hillary than liked Donald Trump.

No, the problem was the insurmountable obstacles that were placed in her path. The media that practically canonized Bernie Sanders while giving Hillary nothing but grief. The media that ignored her actual positions while they harped day after endless day on e-mails. The media enthralled with the man who perfected the inflammatory tweet, the man who would say anything and reporters following after him like panting dogs, hanging on his every disgusting word. Waiting for the next dump of Hillary's e-mails to see if there was anything juicy and scandalous in them. (There wasn't). Doing Russia's dirty work for it.

The problem was a hostile foreign nation mucking around in our election with, we now know, the precise intent of handing our presidency to Putin's buddy, Don. Hacking the Democrats e-mails and giving them over to Wikileaks to spew into the middle of the campaign. Putting out fake news stories about payments to ISIS and suspicious deaths and child pornography rings run out of a pizza joint.

We have also discovered recently that the Obama administration gave briefings to Congress regarding Russia's nefarious actions but the Republicans (those Benghazi-investigating maniacs) met the situation with a big "ho hum".

The problem was a hostile F.B.I. director willing to step right in the middle of an election with a bombshell announcement that more of Hillary's e-mails had been found, possibly requiring further investigation. Nine days before the election with a further announcement seven days later - "oops, sorry, nothing there after all". So, of course the question is: if they could check them so quickly, why didn't they? Before the first statement?

But one thing they were right about - the people who hate Hillary hate her with a virulently purple passion. That's why they'll gladly latch onto the most ridiculous conspiracy theories and run with them. That's why they willingly believe that she's a murderous traitor. That's why fake news landed right in their wheel house.

And now they've stuck us with a man who may be the worst president in our history. An arrogant man with no intellectual curiosity, who acknowledges no rules or traditions, whose business practices are the very illustration of conflict of interest.